Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41363014›Full record

ArticleJournal of chemical information and modeling2025

Test-Time Training Scaling Laws for Chemical Exploration in Drug Design.

Morgan Thomas, Albert Bou, Gianni De Fabritiis

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of chemical information and modeling, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Generative Deep Learning for de Novo Drug Design─A Chemical Space Odyssey.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2025
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Morgan ThomasComputational Science Laboratory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), C Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-1610-3499
Albert BouComputational Science Laboratory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), C Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0001-6027-4538
Gianni De FabritiisComputational Science Laboratory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), C Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-3913-4877

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Chemical language models (CLMs) leveraging reinforcement learning (RL) have shown promise in de novo molecular design, yet often suffer from mode collapse, limiting their exploration capabilities. Inspired by test-time training (TTT) in large language models, we propose scaling TTT for CLMs to enhance chemical space exploration. We introduce MolExp, a novel benchmark emphasizing the discovery of structurally diverse molecules with similar bioactivity, simulating real-world drug design challenges. Our results demonstrate that scaling TTT by increasing the number of independent RL agents follows a log-linear scaling law, significantly improving exploration efficiency as measured by MolExp. In contrast, increasing TTT training time yields diminishing returns, even with exploration bonuses. We further evaluate cooperative RL strategies to enhance exploration efficiency. These findings provide a scalable framework for generative molecular design, offering insights into optimizing AI-driven drug discovery.

Indexed as

Drug DesignModels, ChemicalDrug DiscoveryTime Factors

Identifiers

PMID41363014
PMCPMC12728925

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.